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Articles from Francis Rosenfeld | Selfgrowth.com
- Weather Musings - by Submitted on Oct 20, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldI read last year's entry entry for this week and got reminded of how remarkably consistent the weather and garden patterns are: the first snow, the January cold streak, the first bloom. They follow nature's implicit schedule almost to the day. It just dawned on me that I could read up a few ...
Views: 392 - What Plants Need to Thrive - by Submitted on Oct 29, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldIf you ever drove by a flower meadow in the middle of summer, you must have realized that plants handle themselves very well without human assistance, as they’ve always done. The gardener is only there to cheer them along. A plant needs three things to thrive: sunlight, water and a proper ...
Views: 470 - What Plants Need to Thrive - by Submitted on Jul 20, 2021 from Francis RosenfeldIf you ever drove by a flower meadow in the middle of summer, you must have realized that plants handle themselves very well without human assistance, as they’ve always done. The gardener is only there to cheer them along. A plant needs three things to thrive: sunlight, water and a proper ...
Views: 480 - What to Do with Basil - by Submitted on May 16, 2016 from Francis RosenfeldToday was one of those rainy summer days when lighting is diminished and one derives a sense of well being from hearing the rolling boom of the far away thunder as rain raps heavily on the roof. I had picked herbs before the rain started, large bunches of herbs, opal basil and bee balm and ...
Views: 553 - What to do with green tomatoes - by Submitted on Jan 20, 2016 from Francis RosenfeldEvery year the generous tomato plants bless us with an overabundance of fruit that doesn't have the chance to ripen before the first frost. Tomatoes take their sweet time to figure out how to bear more and more fruit and their best and most abundant yield goes so far into the fall they don't ...
Views: 723 - What to Do with Herbs - by Submitted on Jul 11, 2016 from Francis RosenfeldGetting from the aromatic plant in the garden to the home made health or beauty product involves a couple of preliminary steps - preserving the herbs for long term storage and transferring their active ingredients into a medium easy to work with, usually oil. Drying is the most common way to ...
Views: 549 - What's an Eggplant Worth? - by Submitted on Jun 11, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldI’ve been growing vegetables in my little garden for over ten years, and one may wonder what is the benefit of waiting four whole months to get an eggplant when there is a whole stand of them at the grocery store all the time, even in the middle of winter. What happens is that every year, ...
Views: 487 - What's in a name - by Submitted on Mar 31, 2015 from Francis RosenfeldBeing vague in gardening often yields hilarious results. I will apply myself to relearning horticulture basics next season, and heed the experts' advice to be specific about what I'm planning to plant. Here are a few lessons I learned this year. Paying attention to the correct Latin ...
Views: 558 - White Fragrance - by Submitted on Nov 04, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldYou would think that the white fleshy flowers that have a heavy, almost overbearing fragrance would be the easiest to extract perfume from, but it is the very opposite: lilies, gardenias, lily of the valley, tuberoses, honeysuckle, and jasmine are notoriously difficult to pin down scent wise, as ...
Views: 479 - Why leaves turn - by Submitted on Sep 15, 2015 from Francis RosenfeldFor the less romantically inclined among us, who don't get misty eyed over nature's autumnal carnival of color but would like to know why the leaves turn, here is the full prose version of it. Foliage comes with three pigments: green - the chlorophyll, yellow-orange - the carotenoids, and ...
Views: 541 - Why Spring is My Favorite Season - by Submitted on Jan 09, 2017 from Francis RosenfeldSpring didn't come early this year, the daffodils and hyacinths are still struggling with the cold weather. This comes somewhat as a relief, last year's spring arrived unseasonably early and was followed by a damaging summer of drought. Last year around this time the grass was sprinkled with ...
Views: 656 - Wild Roses - by Submitted on Mar 14, 2021 from Francis RosenfeldThe wild roses, the species and the rugosas, are what comes to mind when you think rose hips. Their fruits are large, in bright hues of red and bright orange, and their thorny shrubs provide them in abundance. The best known species variety is the dog rose, an ancestor of the old garden ...
Views: 388 - Winter Blossoms - by Submitted on Jan 29, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldI wasn’t sure if I should go out into the garden and attempt to take pictures, ‘cause what are you gonna find in this climate in the middle of winter, but then I remembered the hellebores. What glorious plants they are, evergreen and blooming in January as if weather is not one of their ...
Views: 500 - Winter Pampering - by Submitted on Nov 29, 2016 from Francis RosenfeldI looked far and wide for signs of spring, which is a testimony to my undying optimism, and there is nothing, nothing, I tell you! Not even a little shivering primrose, or a tentative daffodil, just nothing on ice with a side of leafless trees. As it very well should be, what self-respecting ...
Views: 692 - Winterizing - by Submitted on Nov 11, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldThe winter arrived, somewhat tentative but for good. Yesterday it snowed with the large and fluffy kind of flakes which form when the air is still warm. At least the garden is ready: the flower beds are mostly cleared of leaves, the bulbs are in the ground, the trellisses and the pots are ...
Views: 445 - Working with annuals - by Submitted on Dec 02, 2015 from Francis RosenfeldCreating themes with annuals is almost like painting, you can create infinite variations of color, contrasting and analogous harmonies, focal points and diffusion hues. The rules are the same as those of basic color theory, with the difference that the components of your art piece are alive. ...
Views: 648 - Working with Herbs - by Submitted on Jun 12, 2017 from Francis RosenfeldWorking with herbs is an art and small details in the practice of harvesting and preserving them makes the difference between success and failure. Harvesting: Always harvest herbs in the morning, right after the dew has dried up but before the heat makes the plants release their volatile ...
Views: 694 - Yarrow - by Submitted on Jun 01, 2016 from Francis RosenfeldA resilient weed, native to the Northern Hemisphere, yarrow grows wild in open fields and along the sides of the roads, and had only recently acquired the privilege of being cultivated in flower gardens. Don't judge this humble herb to be ordinary, Achillea millefolium is a well documented ...
Views: 558 - Yarrow - by Submitted on Jul 05, 2016 from Francis RosenfeldA resilient weed, native to the northern hemisphere, yarrow grows wild in open fields and along the sides of the roads, and had only recently gained the privilege to be cultivated in flower gardens. Don't judge this humble herb to be ordinary, Achillea millefolium is a well documented medicinal ...
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